How Do You Self-Identify...and why.

[LeftWriteFemme]

The first thing I am before anything else is a girl. I think this makes me 'other' in a way that is not as hard to explain, as it seems hard for people to understand or accept, this is not an age play or a little/big kind of thing either, that's not what I mean; I am a girl not a woman in the same way that a zebra is not a horse.

That said, I am gay also queer and a lesbian, femme is apparent, but it is on the list.

[Abigail Crabby]

Interesting topic.......

For me, first and always I am a girl..... I am a girl first and always, even if single I am still a girl.

I love lables, I slapped Queer Femme on me proudly long ago, sometimes at work I shock the younger straight set of friends I have when I call myself Queer. They react with omg!! Isn't that a derogatory word. I said only if one thinks so I happily embrace the Queer I am.

So I suppose I am a Queer Femme Girl and I love everyone no matter what label they choose or don't choose.

I am femme by nature as was my Mother before me.

[Heart]

How do I identify?

I'm a woman, I'm a lesbian, I'm femme.

I'm queer as in part of the queer community.

I also use/reclaim the word dyke, though my only issue with the word lesbian is when other queers wrinkle their noses at it.

Heart

[Gemme]

Queer Stone Femme Girl

Queer-a term that fits better than any other...it's often used as an umbrella term and I kind of like that because that means there's lots of room for different flavors inside that one identifier.

Stone-because I choose to partner with Stone Butches and Transguys and because their sexual boundaries of what touch is acceptable and what bits not to touch fit with my sexual boundaries of what bits I'm not touching as well as how I prefer to touch the bits I do touch.

Femme-ever notice that femme ends with 'me'?

Girl-maybe it's because I didn't get the childhood I think I should have or maybe I was just born this way, but I'm all girl, inside and out, good, bad and ugly. It's inside me as surely as the molecules that carry oxygen throughout my body and just as necessary for existence.

[Dominique]

I'm a middle aged athletic lesbian.

[Glenn]

Lifelong Stonebutch..."I'm on the right track baby I was born this way".

[redrose]

I am femme because I am feminine in appearance and manner

[Just_G]

I am Queer. I was born Butch; it is who I am, it is what I am, it is how I dress, it is how I look. I feel Transgendered; a mix if two things that come together to make me unique.

Queer is my umbrella term out in the every day world; Trans-Butch around these parts since I don't have to explain myself to people here.

Y'all can just call me G.

[Jett]

Grown-ass unapologetic *Tomboy*. Why? Because it relays things at my core that have remained steady and true throughout my life- though at times (like decades) I have tried to shun/hide/smother pieces and parts of these things due to my own life experiences and that resulted in un-examined internal misogyny.

After self examination in the last couple years, self work on so many things OTHER than my identity, after scraping off the shit and allowing parts of myself light that I hadn't seen for decades... a cocky hardcore Tomboy remained... lol. The only part of me (in relation to these particular identities) I believe innate, and who I can most clearly remember always having been... if that makes sense. I could technically still claim butch, I am very butch (the adjective) inside still, my relationship has the yin yang of the dynamic... but for me in Tomboy I feel more "freedom" for integral parts of me, though not unheard of in "*butch* more unusual no doubt... and the conglomerate of them tip the scales in my mind. So it's honestly (for me) it's just more accurate in that it describes better and encompasses my personal *fluid-ness* being comfortable all in one vessel. I have strong masculine traits and also strong feminine traits and that works great for me... I enjoy both, they are not at odds in me but seamless and natural.

Did I break the rules because I spoke about not id'ing butch? I did it b/c I did ID that way for so long... or maybe because I'm a rule-breaker at heart... oh well... either way I have breakfast to make and a truck engine to play with... in other words, life calls... you can punish me later.

[1QuirkyKiwi]

I'm a girl, a woman, gay, lesbian and femme.......why? Because gay and lesbian were the only two adjectives known in small town NZ.

I'm grew up a girl, I'm now a woman and identify as a femme.